Harmful to Minors
by morning.chickenhead
Summary: As kids, BFFs Emma and Manny want to share ALL their experiences, even sexual ones. But how will their parents feel?


**Disclaimer: I do not own characters or settings from Degrassi. Just the stuff between the proper nouns.**

**Harmful to Minors**

"You pretend to be the boy, Manny," Emma ordered in her usual bossy, somewhat big-sisterly tone.

"What do I do?" Manny asked, not feigning what was very real ignorance.

Emma put her hands on Manny's upper arms and positioned her friend directly in front of her. "Just for now stand right there and put your hands on my back and draw me in for a kiss. Then when we get into bed, you get on top of me."

"Okay," Manny agreed in a small voice. She tiptoed forward a bit so she could reach her arms around Emma's body, gangly in comparison to her stocky chubbiness. They stood at least two feet apart as they leaned in to share an innocent peck of a kiss on the lips.

"Do we take our clothes off?" asked Manny.

"Yes…but," Emma added thoughtfully, "I should do that part. Girls should do, like, a strip tease or something to make the boy excited. And then she should take his clothes off, too. That way she can be in control."

Typical – Emma wanting to be in control, that is.

When they were under the covers, though, they touched each other only tentatively, and Emma no longer seemed certain about her every action. It was helpful that it was dark under there, so they didn't have to be so embarrassed. Kissing each other's mouths made it easier, too, because it distracted the mind from what was going on below the belt.

Their play didn't last long, however.

"_What is going on here?!_"

The voice of Manny's father shattered the girls' curious fantasy. Under the blanket Manny's whole body tensed and she remained right where she was. Only Emma had the guts, or the courtesy, or the lack of sense, to pop her red face out. She pushed her tangled hair out of her eyes and examined Mr. Santos. His twisted, panting face made him look like an angry gorilla.

"Get out," he said calmly, his facial expression not disturbed in the slightest by the motions of his mouth.

Now Emma was hyper-conscious of the fact that she was buck naked. And in order to leave, she would have to leave the safety of the bed and show herself to a strange man. "Can you please _leave?_" she retorted, clutching the blanket so it covered her flat chest.

"I believe I asked _you_ to leave, Miss Nelson," he replied, glaring unwaveringly at the quivering lump that was Manny.

Now Emma trembled in tandem with her best friend as she realized she had no choice. She rolled backwards out of the bed so she was facing away from Manny's father. It might be okay if all he saw was her down-covered backside. She gathered up her clothes in a swoop and hugged them so they covered the front of her body, then marched, naked, out of Manny's bedroom.

Outside the room, Manny heard her mother gasp. "Emma. Are you all right?" The bathroom door clicked shut. Emma must have gone in there to dress before she left the apartment. Focusing on the minute noises outside the room gave Manny the strength to regain some terse control over her heart, which was hammering in terror. She and her father were in a stalemate. He wouldn't speak until she did, she knew, and that was part of her punishment.

She finally forced herself to speak, albeit timidly. "It was just a game, Daddy."

"Little girls don't play those games," he shouted, now reaching forward and ripping the blankets off the bed to reveal a terrified Manny, who had curled her body into the foetal position.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into the bed.

"Not as sorry as you will be," he replied stonily. He seized her by her tiny brown hands and flipped her naked body over his knee. She whimpered quietly as he brought his hand down stingingly on her little bum, again and again and again. Until it was rubbed red and raw.

Later that evening, Manny's mother called Spike to let her know what the girls had been up to. She said, with a quake in her voice, that Emma would no longer be welcome in their home.

Spike sighed and said to Emma, "That kind of exploring of your body I won't discourage, but Emma, honey, it's the kind of exploring you should do by yourself."

Emma's face burned with humiliation and guilt. Still, she didn't back down. "But, Mom! Don't children have a right to curiosity?!"

Spike eyed her daughter and shook her head at nothing in particular. "Next time, Emma," she quietly advised, "don't get caught."


End file.
